When Barack Obama became a candidate for the president of the United States in 2007, the number of conspiracy theories emerged that focused on his eligibility to run for the office based on whether he was a natural born citizen. The birther conspiracy claimed that Obama was born in Kenya, the son of a Kenyan father and an American mother. None of these turned out to be true but it's worth analyzing because they have their origins in American racism and efforts to delegitimize Obama and make him seem other, someone from another country, culture, or religion. Rather, today I'd like to talk about the figure of Barack Obama through Kenyan eyes and to explore how Kenyans sought to make sense of his rise to political power and global fame. As I will explain, in order to understand what Barack Obama and his election looked like through Kenyanize, we need to understand something about Kenyan history in politics and learn how he came to represent a hopeful politics in a particularly divided and difficult time in Kenya. But let's first start with Barack Obama's father, Barack Obama Sr., someone who was indeed a man born and raised in Kenya. His father was born in Kogelo, a town on the eastern shore of Lake Victoria, the homelands of the Luo tribal group. The Luo are group whose homelands are in Western Kenya but who now also lived throughout Kenya with many living in the diaspora around the world including the United States. In Kenya and in many other African countries, people regard themselves as citizens of their nation but also as members of what are commonly called tribal groups. These are ethnic groups that often share a common language, history, and homeland. Barack Obama's father was related to some of the founding lineages of the Luo, which has meant that Obama himself is understood by Kenyans as an important and central part of the Luo tribal group. In Kenya, there are 42 tribes who speak more than 60 different languages. This makes for a complex and ethnically diverse country where most people speak at least two or three languages. Only a couple of these tribal groups have been politically dominant since the period of independence. In Kenya, the Gikuyu have remained the most politically powerful group. The first president of independent Kenya elected in 1964, Jomo Kenyatta, was a Gikuyu and so was every president since him. The Luo are also a powerful tribe with political influence but in contrast to the Gikuyu they are often regarded as the main opposition group. At various moments in Kenyan's history, the Luo mounted significant electoral challenges to the power of the Gikuyu. Most recently, there was a highly contested presidential election in 2007 which painted a Luo candidate, Raila Odinga, against the Gikuyu candidate, Mwai Kibaki, with Kibaki winning the Presidency. One of the most important things to understand about Kenyan politics is that political parties are structured around both tribal identities and personal figures most commonly men. Particular individuals come to represent power and influence for the political parties and these are often framed through tribal affiliations. Currently, for the Luo, the most high-ranking person is Raila Odinga whose father, Oginga Odinga, was also a prominent Luo politician before him. In 2004, Raila Odinga was a member of parliament and also well-known as having been a political prisoner and in exile under the previous Kenyan president, Daniel Arap Moi. I will return to the contentious relationship between Odinga and the powerful Gikuyu politicians. But first it's important to recognize Odinga not only as an opposition politician but as a Luo opposition politician. When Obama began to emerge as a political candidate for the United States Senate in 2003 and 2004, Kenyans and especially the Luo began to take notice. The Luo were extremely excited about Obama's run for the Senate and rejoiced when he was elected in 2004. Luo political leaders watched the US election returns inside the US ambassadors residents in Nairobi as guests of the ambassador. One description of the scene is evocative. "As November 2nd dawned in Kenya, Raila Odinga and his cohort literally wore their support for Obama on their sleeves. Kitted out in Obama buttons and US flag ties, they cheered vociferously when Obama's win was announced." Odinga was not alone in cheering Obama's victory. There was much press in Kenya about the political success of Obama and how a person of partial Kenyan origin was emerging as a US leader. But it is the Luo people in Kenya, related as they were to Obama's father, who have made the most explicit attempts to claim Barack Obama and his political successes as their own. In the homelands of the Luo on the eastern shores of Lake Victoria, there was much discussion before and after the election about how Obama's victory might affect their lives locally. There were hopes that the election of Obama as a US senator would mean important things for the Luo province as if the ascendancy of Obama would have direct benefits to the Luo homeland. People in Luo villages hoped that things like public works projects and jobs would flow to them, the types of things that might be expected to happen when a relative was elected in Kenya. As one man said, "Now that our son has won, we can look forward to better roads, improved health and educational facilities since we know he can provide us all that." Luos had vested in Senator Obama the attributes expected from a local member of Kenya's parliament. Obama himself was clearly aware of Kenyan perceptions of him. After he was elected to the Senate, he spoke out against the idea that his election would help the Luo or Kenya directly. One report in a Kenyan newspapers stated that, "US Senator-elect Barack Obama says he cannot bring development to Kenya." He told the delegation of Kenyan community leaders in Detroit and Chicago that no favors should be expected from him. When he visited Kenya in 2006, two years after he'd become a senator, he also spoke out against political corruption more generally and argued against expectations that he knew Luo and other Kenyans had about him. "In terms of expectations, I have to explain very early on that I am just one senator out of a hundred senators. Ultimately decisions about programs and projects are made in collaboration by persons other than myself. I don't have a checkbook where I can write a check directly for the US treasury." Obama's rise to political power both in the United States Senate and presidency occurred at a particularly difficult political moment in Kenya. One which painted the Luo candidate, Raila Odinga, against the incumbent Gikuyu candidate, Kibaki.. Up until the election in December of 2007, Odinga had a slight lead in the polls but after three days of counting ballots, Kibaki was announced the winner beating Odinga by a very small amount. Odinga and many other Luo decried what they saw as irregularities in the election and refuse to accept the results. Kibaki was sworn in the same day in a closed ceremony. With Odinga accusing Kibaki of electoral fraud, the country erupted into violence with many Luo believing that the Gikuyu had cheated. Finally, in February of 2008 as Obama's presidential campaign was in full swing, former UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, helped broker a deal called the National Accord in which Odinga was installed as Prime Minister with Kibaki as President. This was a power-sharing government that sought to give equal representation to the different ethnic groups. Thus when Barack Obama became a candidate for president and then ultimately won in 2008, many Luo regarded him as the first Luo President achieving something in the US that was not achievable by a Luo in Kenya. His election was held by Luo in Kenya as fulfilling some of their own dreams and desires locally and a success for their broader community. Because Obama was able to achieve this before a Luo did in Kenya, he remains a beacon for Luo political ambitions in their country. However, while most Kenyans are proud of Obama as a son of Kenya, many also recognize that Obama's rise to political power in Kenya itself would not have been possible because Luo politicians have not been able to overcome their Gikuyu political rivals. There are other Kenyans however who are more hopeful. They see Obama's messages against political corruption and his careful rejection of tribal politics as a path towards a future beyond ethnic politics in Kenya. Raila Odinga himself drew upon Obama's success to critique ethnic politics in Kenya striking a hopeful future tone. "Barack Obama's success will inspire us all to break the shackles of ethnic preoccupations in determining political leadership." Unfortunately, Odinga's hopeful words have not been matched with peaceful elections nor Luo victories. In two extremely close presidential elections in 2013 and 2017, Odinga lost to Uhuru Kenyatta, the son of Kenya's first president. In both elections, Odinga contested the results. Thus Obama remains the one Luo President to this day. The election of Barack Obama as President of the United States has allowed Africans and in particular Kenyans to feel a direct connection with American politics.
